Frontman with Primus and a whole string of side projects including Sausage and Oysterhead, Les Claypool is best known for his stunning slap-and-pop technique which, combined with near-impossible speed and eccentricity on a host of fretted, fretless, whammy-barred and multi-stringed instruments, leaves all but the world's best bass players in the shade.
In 2003 when Primus announced a reunion tour, on which the band played its 1991 breakthrough Sailing the Seas of Cheese album in its entirety, bass fans immediately paid attention, and it all flowed from the hands of the three old friends – Claypool, Larry Lalonde on guitar, and Tim Alexander on drums.
A new EP featured five new Primus tracks and a companion DVD that included every Primus video alongside a host of previously unreleased live performances.
“Going through the old stuff is always nostalgic,” Claypool told Bass Player. “Seeing old friends, not to mention the hairstyles and clothing. But more than anything, it was special re-experiencing those songs. There's just something Larry, Tim, and I have together that we'd forgotten about.”
“Tim has a unique style, especially the way he uses the kick drum, so we rediscovered this vast catalog of material. Some of it is just so far out – really bizarre. I don't really listen to Primus records. It amazes me that we wrote like that. It's not exactly classic rock, that's for sure.”
The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place on the eve of 2003’s Tour de Fromage, which presented the best-known Primus lineup in a “multimedia theatrical stage production.”
How did it feel to dig so deeply into the old material?
“My first reaction was, ‘This is some strange stuff!’ I can't remember the last time I had heard Seas of Cheese. I did listen to Frizzle Fry when we remastered it, and that was one of the things that got me going to do something with Primus again.
“I hadn't attempted to play it for so long, mostly because it's just so different from what I've been doing with Oysterhead and Frog Brigade.”
What did you make of your playing on the earlier songs?
“I imagine it's a reflection of my youth, but I was surprised to hear how cocky some of it is. I mean, I had a 6-string bass guitar made for me, and then I had them pull out the frets – just because I wanted to try something different! Then I brought it into the studio and just began playing it, like it was normal.
“Same with Tim. The day we started recording Seas of Cheese, he got this massive drum set delivered to the studio. He'd never even seen it before, but he set it up and tuned it all by himself. The result was the oddest-sounding drum kit ever. Meanwhile, I was just fumbling my way along on this incredible bass, and here we were making our first major-label record.”
You do have a highly developed style. When you're writing, are you thinking, ‘This part needs one of those upper-register ostinatos I'm famous for,’ or is that just...
“Actually, with the new material, I was very conscious of making it sound like we sounded the first time around. When we got Brain (drummer Brian Mantia, who later joined Guns N' Roses) in the band, we shifted gears completely. We wanted to be like Led Zeppelin, with huge rock drum sounds – totally different from what we'd done with Tim – and it was great.
“But this time out I told Tim, ‘You have to get a kit with a gazillion drums and a gazillion cymbals, just like your old set. We'll get that tiny kick drum sound. It'll be like Seas of Cheese, man!’
“I also had Carl Thompson do some work on my Rainbow bass. I quit using it when Brain joined the band because it had just become so difficult to play. So I had Carl reshape the neck and lighten the headstock considerably. That bass was always very awkward, and I always had to force myself to play it.”
Is the Rainbow bass as heavy as it looks?
“It actually doesn't weigh all that much, but it was very top-heavy because the tuners were so big. So Carl put different tuners on it and reshaped the neck a bit, and it's way better now. It's incredible how great it feels.
“Once I decided to play that bass, I pushed Tim to just go crazy, to be as aggressive as he'd ever been. That's why we ended up just bouncing off each other like we used to, and that's why the new songs sound the way they do.”
Your influence in the bass world is undeniable. How much do you think about your status as a bass player?
“I'm never trying to be a bass superhero, that's for sure. I think in terms of images and songs, not in terms of how groundbreaking a bassline can be. I do love the fact that there are kids who look at me the way I looked at Geddy Lee and Tony Levin. That's marvellous and wonderful, and sometimes it can be incredibly touching, but it's not something I think about when I'm playing.”
Did you ever picture yourself as anything other than a bassist?
“Oh, yeah. The bass is just something I happened to pick up. It wasn't a random choice, of course; it was because I like the instrument's sound. But I was going to be either a bassist or a drummer, and I still play both. Still, I'd be writing the same material if I were a guitar player.
“Now I'm so comfortable with the bass that it's become like my pencil – but it's like a cartoonist choosing a pencil over a Sharpie or some water colors. It may look or sound different, but the underlying material is similar.”
Is technique something you still have to think about?
“I still sit down in front of the TV with my bass and noodle around, just to keep things lubricated. I need to as I get older. I never used to practice before gigs or anything. Todd Huth, our old guitarist, used to warm up completely before every show, but I never did. I'd just sit around drinking beers and smoking weed. But as I get older, I do find that I play better if I keep the gears in shape.
“My most intense playing over the past few years has been on the road with the Frog Brigade. I was constantly challenging the band with material. We'd play Pink Floyd's Animals from start to finish, or we'd learn new tunes every day.
“These were just ways to stay fresh, because out on the road, you need to keep up your chops. But coming together with Larry and Tim is a completely different thing. For example, it never occurs to me to do much tapping with Frog Brigade, mainly because there are so many guys up there. There just isn't much space for that kind of bass playing.”
Primus can fill up space, too – My Friend Fats is quite a racket!
“That's me hitting every button on every pedal I had going.”
Somehow, it still sounds like you three are playing together. How long did it take to feel comfortable with each other again?
“It was strange, because I usually know my stuff, but I couldn't remember words, and I couldn't remember transitions. Luckily, those guys knew the stuff pretty well. We did have trouble getting all the way through songs at the beginning, but that was because of me. I think I just had so much other material in my head.”
Was there a moment when you felt you had to play together again?
“Probably during an Ozzfest tour, when Brain was still in the band. It wasn't because anything was lacking with Brain in the band at all; the stuff we did with Brain is great. I love the Brown Album. It's such a departure, and it was a huge risk to make this really garage-y record.
“But I remember watching Sabbath – and I'd seen Sabbath play with Carmine Appice and Mike Bordin and some great drummers over the years – but this was the original lineup with Bill Ward on drums, and it was mind-blowing. That was it, right there – it was magic. And at that point, I realized that someday we had to do Primus with Tim again.”
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